JAKARTA - Energy sustainability is one of the most crucial issues for Indonesia.
In the midst of these challenges, palm oil can be a very potential solution because it has abundant supplies in the country.
Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Energy, Mineral, and Coal Suppliers Association (ASPEBINDO), M Hadi Nainggolan, said that all parts of the oil palm plant have the potential to be utilized in the development of bioenergy.
He gave an example, the utilization of palm oil or crude palm oil (CPO) as a biodiesel raw material.
Then, palm oil biomass such as empty bunches, shells, to palm stems can be used as a renewable energy source.
It is recorded that the area of oil palm plantations in Indonesia reaches 16.8 million hectares with a potential biomass production of around 272 million tons per year.
"So, our palm oil can become a pillar for national energy strength. Indonesia can become the number one country in the world that produces energy based on biological wealth," he said in Jakarta, Saturday, July 25.
Hadi Nainggolan reminded that the development of palm oil-based bioenergy has very promising prospects.
In addition to being supported by abundant raw material availability, the utilization of palm oil is supported by sustainability aspects because the plant can be renewable (renewable energy) with production throughout the year that is relatively stable.
He explained that currently palm oil biomass has been used as fuel in a number of power plants in Indonesia.
Abundant supply availability is one of the main factors that encourage the use of palm oil biomass as an energy source in a number of these power plants.
"The key is that this palm oil will become a source of bioenergy with the support of 16.8 million hectares of oil palm plantations," he said.
One of the efforts to optimize the potential of palm oil in the development of bioenergy is carried out by the Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDP) through the Indonesian Palm Research Week (PERISAI) program.
The program encourages the birth of various research and innovations that provide added value including in the field of renewable energy.
Through PERISAI, BPDP has produced innovations in the field of bioenergy which increase the competitiveness of the national palm oil industry.
Bioenergy innovation shows that palm oil has great potential as a raw material for a more environmentally friendly future energy while being able to increase the added value of national palm commodities.
Hadi added that the development of palm oil-based bioenergy would have a positive impact on Indonesia in reducing dependence on fossil energy imports, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating global warming, to improving the national oil and gas trade balance.
Based on data from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, the implementation of the biodiesel program during the period 2015-2025 has resulted in foreign exchange savings of IDR 722.9 trillion, creating added value of IDR 114.7 trillion through the processing of CPO into biodiesel, supporting the absorption of up to 10.9 million people in the palm oil sector, and contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 228.41 million tons of CO₂.
The same thing was conveyed by the Founder and Executive Director of the Palm Oil Agribusiness Strategic Policy Institute (PASPI), Tungkot Sipayung, who said that the development of palm oil-based bioenergy would have various positive impacts both economically, socially, and environmentally. Tungkot Sipayung explained, the diversification of the use of palm oil into bioenergy will expand the fresh fruit bunch (FFB) market produced by farmers.
Thus, palm oil farmers are no longer dependent on the demand for cooking oil.
In fact, he revealed, if at present the palm oil-based bioenergy market in Indonesia has surpassed the cooking oil market.
This condition is considered to contribute to the stability of TBS prices at the farmer level so that they can increase their income.
"This profitable and stable TBS price stems from the improvement in farmers' income which is getting better," he explained.
Tungkot assessed that the development of palm oil-based bioenergy is also part of the solution in facing the challenges of global warming and climate change.
According to him, oil palm plants are able to absorb carbon from the atmosphere through the photosynthesis process, thus contributing to the reduction of carbon emission concentration.
Then, palm bioenergy is able to replace fossil energy which is the largest contributor to emissions in the world so that overall it will be able to drastically reduce global emissions.
"With these two ways, it is very clear that palm bioenergy will improve the quality of the global environment," he concluded.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
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